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STEADY SUN – FLORA

“Imagine a world like a dream that you awake inside of or a mirror in which the reflection is not yours. Steady Sun have a magicians touch in everything they do; there are even subtle Beatle-esque elements in songs like ‘Flowers and Insects,’ notably the flowery keys in the background awash in group vocals. Steady Sun are fronted by artist Dylan Nowik, this five-piece’s second full-length LP is a maturation on the baroque pop sound established on Good Evening. Flora was recorded exclusively in an upstate New York barn and I can really get those images floating to the preconsciousness of its exterior, although lying underneath is in my ears just a clever song writer. Nowik doesn’t leave a tone or element unturned, his dreamstate-like lyrics, flourish wildly in this world. Lines like, “Is it all in my mind?” channel that ethos and you find yourself repeating them as they can dance along to the whim of a band that pushes the energy of a song in so many ways on the drop of a dime. But it’s about what they maintain that viscidly ascribes their contribution to a style and taste their own. So while it’s hard to say if all of this is deliberate, it does seem Nowick and Co. have spent considerable time ruminating around the idea of sticking to a sonic palate and doing a damn good job at it again and again on Flora, making it difficult to separate from “ideas or feelings” from an entire plane where the horticulture swallows the listener whole spitting you into a 35-min & 66-sec journey.”